Sunday, January 30, 2011

Happy Sunday stampers! Its time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ! This week's hostess is the lucky Lisa (she's going to CHA in California!) and she selected Psalm 23 for her inspiration. . . he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. And her challenge is to make a card or project that uses the colors blue (still waters) and green (green pastures). You can read her devotional on the main blog here as well as see the fabulous projects by the rest of the design team. I saw them in the gallery previous to posting and it is a soothing sensation to see them all in one place!

Our sponsor this week is Taylored Expressions. I had the good fortune to attend CHA Chicago last summer and got this stamp at the Taylored Expressions booth. Little did I know then just how well it would fit today's challenge but I believe God is in control of everything, even details as small as this one, buying a stamp months ago that would fit a challenge Lisa selected just week's ago, coinciding with the week that Taylored Expressions is our sponsor! That just makes me smile.

Psalm 23 is so comforting. I would urge you to take some time this week, find a quiet corner and read Psalm 23 and really let the words soak into your soul. There isn't anything I could say to add to the beauty of the words in that psalm.

Thanks for looking. Have a great day and hope you can play along with us this week!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I had a little extra time this week and found a chance to play in two challenges that are new to me. One of them is clean & simple stamping challenge 124. Believe me I NEED this!!! LOL! Most of my stuff takes me way too long to make, so a clean and simple sketch challenge is just the thing to help me out.

I also am very challenged when it comes to colors, I sort of freeze up at a color challenge, so these ought to help me out there as well, at CR84FN12, this week's colors are kraft, lavendar and pink.

Now, cutting out that gladiola did still take a bit of time, so I'm not there yet completely with cutting back, but getting there! Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Its time for another Papertrey Ink customer blog hop. The challenge this month was to use a set you either haven't opened or one you hadn't used in a long time. I bought Friendship Jars last summer and never got a chance to use it, so this is the first time. I paired it up with the Tiny Treats: Valentine's because I had this image of the little goldfish you win at a school fair . . . those usually come in plastic bags, but I thought the jar would make a nice substitute.

For the jar I embossed the edges in black, wish I'd had some UTEE it would have made the lines a bit thicker! Then I drenched it with water and using three different shades of blue reinker, plopped some color down on the water and moved it around a bit with a brush. There is a name for this technique I know, its just escaping me at the moment.

It was fun to be able to use some very bright, primary colors. Thanks for looking and happy hopping!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Happy Sunday stampers!! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. Our hostess this week is the lovely Linda from down under who selected this verse from Jeremiah 31:3 "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Her challenge is to make a vintage card or project. You can read her devotional on the main blog as well as the other design team member's creations. Our sponsor this week is Designed2Delight @ http://designed2delight@blogspot.com. One random winner from the main SSIC blog posting will receive two free digitals from her store.

In this verse I am keying in on one word, 'everlasting.' How often do people discount God, try to ignore his existence, deny his deity? Sometimes it isn't really a deliberate turning, life gets hard or troubles mount up faster than solutions and you might feel like you are lost and alone, that God has forgotten you. But He hasn't.

God exists outside of time, He created time itself. Everlasting--there is no beginning nor any end to God and His promises are always true. Therefore when He promised Israel that His love for them was everlasting, in the verse from Jeremiah, they knew they could trust in that promise, even though the Israelites themselves turned their backs on God many times.

That same promise is true today. We all have sinned and in that sin have turned away from God, yet if we accept the gift of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for our sins on the cross, that sin can be erased and we can experience eternity in God's love; experience it for everlasting. He does love you and that love is printed on every page of the bible in every promise He ever made. The stories among our design team ladies all are different, but all of us have experienced the saving grace of God's love and you can ask any one of us how to find that for yourself.

I was inspired by the current VSN mini challenge to create a luminaria. I also was inspired by the current Shabby Tea room blog challenge 'White and Bright' to use either white or cream only, plus one other color. I consider the gold a neutral, like black. The tough part actually was finding a vertical sentiment in a small enough typeset to fit my luminaria opening--I realized a lot of them are horizontal, but I found one among my PTI sentiments. Thanks for looking! Hope you can play along with our SSIC challenge this week!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Welcome, welcome to the second Sunday challenge of the year and challenge 72 for Stampin' Sisters in Christ! This week's hostess is dear Grace, who selected this verse from 2 Cor 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Her challenge is to use the theme of "NEW" and interpret it as you want: new year, new life, new birth, new supplies, new house, etc. Please tell us what you use to fit the challenge. Our sponsor this week is Clear Dollar Stamps, do they have the stamp sets on their site, and supplies too! Check out our main blog to see the creations by my other design team sisters as well as for your chance to win $15 in stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps.

My card uses a new sets of stamps I received from Mark's Finest Papers and pansies make me happy, they are new. This card also serves as the first new challenge of the year for the Papertrey Peeps blog, a thank you to Terri (such a sweetie) for organizing our group and getting the challenges going.

Too many things are new in my life to represent them on one card or piece of artwork. We moved to a new state, we have a house new to us. My oldest children ALL are away and I've entered a 3/4 empty nest phase which is very new and I'm still adjusting. My oldest daughter is getting married and I will have a new son-in-law, whom we love already. All this newness represents big changes in our lives.

But that is what life is all about really. Life means change. Each day is new, each breath we take is a new breath, each moment a new opportunity to think about our blessings and our purpose here on earth. Each morning we wake with a fresh, new opportunity before us to make the most of this life we've been given! God's mercies are new every morning. Think about what a gift that is!!! Once you accept Jesus and become a new creation through his sacrifice to you on the cross, the slate is wiped clean, everything is new! Except the Lord's promises, those are as old as the first page of Genesis and with each 'new' phase we enter in life, we can hold those promises close to our hearts. That just fills my soul with such joy!!!

Whatever newness you are facing this year, I pray you embrace it in the love of Jesus Christ. We hope you have a chance to join us in our challenge this week and throughout the year, we enjoy seeing your lovely creations fill the gallery each week. Thanks for looking and have a great day.

The colors of my challenge were inspired by a challenge blog I found this week, I think the letters stand for Create For Fun, it is called CR84FN. Their new challenges post on Sundays as well, so my card doesn't technically 'count' CR84FN10 but they had selected lavendar, aqua, yellow and green, which immediately put the pansies into my mind.

The sketch I found on the Shabby Tea Room blog site, it is their 44th challenge this week, thanks for the sketch inspiration. Lots of great art to be seen there.

For the Stampin' Bs challenge, you were to use a die cut on your card! I used the deckled rectangle nestability and Labels 14 (and three edge punches too, those ought to count extra!)

Crazy For Challenges C4C70 issued a challenge to incorporate a thank you in your card . . . well, my card is all about thank you to Terri!

I stamped the image on white cardstock, cut it out with a deckled rectangle nestability and then painted the images with watercolor crayons. I edged the cardstock with a gold marker and then coated the surface of the image with Tim Holtz Rock Candy . . . stuff. What is that stuff called? The rest is pretty self explanatory. I had a lot of fun making my card, hope you can play along with Stampin' Sisters in Christ this week!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Welcome to the final day of the MFP January Blog Hop! This month, we are releasing 4 NEW SETS!And…LOOK for the WINNERS of the Blog Hop TOMORROW!!!Our New Sets are: In the Forest, Happy Pansies, Sew What, and Floral Tea.For your convenience, all 4 stamp sets are available for purchase TODAY!For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, (a set that will be released NEXT month), visit and comment on each of the following design team members' blogs TODAY. On Saturday, January 15, 2011, a winner will be chosen from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for today. (There will be four different winners, one winner for each day of the blog hop. You DO NOT have to comment every day. However, the more days you comment, the more chances you have to win!) If you miss a day, you can go back and comment on each day's blogs, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

I am not in the hop today, but am posting to my blog to show you this new set from Mark's Finest Papers, called Sew What. My card, along with some of the other designers, is on the main blog post where you also will find the list of the design team members in today's hop. I've provided the list below in case you don't want to go searching!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Welcome to the MFP January Blog Hop! This month, we are releasing 4 NEW SETS!And…LOOK for the WINNERS of the Blog Hop on Saturday!Our New Sets are: In the Forest, Happy Pansies, Sew What, and Floral Tea.For your convenience, all 4 stamp sets are available for purchase TODAY!For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, (a set that will be released NEXT month), visit and comment on each of the following design team members' blogs TODAY. On Saturday, January 15, 2011, a winner will be chosen from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for today. (There will be four different winners, one winner for each day of the blog hop. You DO NOT have to comment every day. However, the more days you comment, the more chances you have to win!) If you miss a day, you can go back and comment on each day's blogs, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning.

My friend and fellow Papertrey Peeps blogger Cammie posted a card with cracked glass, you really need to go look at her blog here, all my blogger buddies are so talented and a constant source of inspiration. I was inspired to try cracked glass with this set when I saw her creation. I wanted sort of a vintage postcard look so I did a lot of sponging and distressing. Although I made my pansies in rather traditional shades of purple and golden yellow, take some time to google pansy images, they come in so many gorgeous colors! You can have a lot of fun with this flower. Now, my pansies did take up a good portion of my card front so I sort of had to tuck the sentiment in on the side underneath the ribbon knot. I only wish I'd found room for one of the bees in this set, another favorite {i.e. weakness} of mine {translation: show me a stamp set with a bee in it and its in my cart!}. Thanks for looking and happy hopping!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Welcome to the MFP January Blog Hop! This month, we are releasing 4 NEW SETS!

And…LOOK for the WINNERS of the Blog Hop Saturday!Our New Sets are: In the Forest, Happy Pansies, Sew What, and Floral Tea.For your convenience, all 4 stamp sets are available for purchase TODAY!For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, (a set that will be released NEXT month), visit and comment on each of the following design team members' blogs TODAY. On Saturday, January 15, 2011, a winner will be chosen from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for today. (There will be four different winners, one winner for each day of the blog hop. You DO NOT have to comment every day. However, the more days you comment, the more chances you have to win!) If you miss a day, you can go back and comment on each day's blogs, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning.

I kind of went nuts with this particular set. I was super excited about all of the sets being released this month, but this one I had trouble putting down! First of all the image with the deer . . . I've always wanted to try one of those detailed scenic stamps but wasn't brave enough. This was so much fun to paint! With one I went with bright colors, painting the background with reinkers and other card I stamped in brown {Vintage Photo} on kraft paper and then brushed it with chalks for very light coloration.

The bunny just makes me squeal, he is too darn cute! Don't ask me how I know he's a he, just a feeling! Anyway, thanks for looking and happy hopping!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Happy Sunday stampers! Welcome to a new year of challenges from Stampin' Sisters in Christ!

This week's hostess is the ultra talented Chris who selected this verse from Ruth 2:12 "May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

Her challenge is to create something that has wings. If you will look closely, the bunny is looking at two friendly butterflies, Chris didn't say how large the wings had to be, so I have two wee sets of wings in the image.

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp. If you play along, you have a chance to be selected randomly by random.org to win a stamp set from their store.

I know that Chris has some great thoughts on the main page, you can click on the link at the top of my post to read her devotional and to see the fabulous creations by the other design team members. I wish I had some great, wonderful thoughts to share with you today but frankly I just barely got my photo to Lisa under the wire for the challenge posting . . . some weeks are just that way!

We do hope you can come alongside us to play this week. Thanks for looking and have a great Sunday!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Hi stampers! Wow, its been a long time since I posted. I had the kids visiting from college and was recovering and unpacking yet from moving. My advice . . . don't combine a move with the year's two most major holidays, moving over Thanksgiving was just crazy!

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of 2011, hope everyone else is off to a good start. We lost the charger for the camera for a few weeks too, so I had no way to take or post photos. Do you ever just feel like a particular color? I was feeling purple last week and needed a sympathy card, so I dug through my scraps and put this together. I used little bits of three different sets from Mark's Finest Papers. The central image is from Thankful Mums, I just really like that flower.

I colored it with prismacolor pencils, using about five different shades in the flower petals. I used about four different greens in the leaves. I stamped the sentiment in silver on vellum and used black brads to adhere it to the card. This is one of my favorite styles of cards to make, a shadowbox card. I included a side shot so you can see more of the 3-dimensional aspect of the card. The nice thing about it is that it still fits into a standard sized envelope as it folds flat.

Thanks for looking. Just a reminder, the current challenge on Stampin' Sisters in Christ ends on January 8th, use inchies on your card and you can enter. Our challenges for 2011 start this Sunday.

Welcome

Welcome to "Roses by my Window,” a place where I can share my creative journey and hopefully add a little beauty to the world. I love the Lord and love my family. I also knit and bake but here I’ll be sharing cards, trying new stamping techniques and attempting to improve even a wee bit each time I hit the craft table. Thanks for stopping to have a look!